Endoscopic optical imaging is a widely employed technique for medical diagnosis. Imaging deeper body cavities and hollow organs is challenging as it requires miniature optical systems with high resolution. It is imperative to develop minimally invasive microendoscopes to image cavities inaccessible to standard endoscopes. Free-space optical systems can yield the necessary resolution for the early detection of diseases. But they cannot be integrated inside a microendoscope penetrating through the body to sufficient depth. Therefore, fiber optics need to be integrated with cylindrical micro-lenses for endoscopy probes. We studied the performance of a gradient refractive index (GRIN) lens of diameter = 1.8 mm as a micro-objective for endoscopy imaging. Another major challenge is the requirement of free-space optics for detection. To overcome the above, we also explore the scope of a double-clad fiber coupler for fiber-optic endoscopy. The imaging performance of the bench-top confocal endoscopy setup is tested on a standard resolution target.